"Meeting Maung-Maung" Response

In “Meeting Maung-Maung,” author Pico Iver demonstrates how one can be quick to judge and form assumptions about strangers and how showing trust and kindness enables people to better understand each other. Throughout most of his interactions with Maung-Maung, Iver is skeptical of the man’s motivations and intentions. Why was university-graduate like Maung-Maung working as a trishaw driver? Was he taking him to his house just to kill him? However, through Maung-Maung’s trust and kindness--showing Iver his most valuable possessions, letting him read his essays, sharing his life story, beliefs, and dreams--Iver is able to better understand him as an individual, not simply as a meager trishaw driver whom he initially was quick to question and pass judgment on. The line,“Reluctantly, I opened it, bracing myself for porno postcards or other illicit souvenirs. Inside, however, was nothing but a series of black-and-white snapshots.” is particularly effective in contrasting Iver’s impressions of Maung-Maung with how the man actually is as a person. Lastly, Iver’s developing appreciation of Maung-Maung as an individual is clearly shown after the author reads the man’s English composition: “Made quite by this labour of love, I looked up. ‘This must have taken you a long time to write.’”